The Black Tide remembers. Strike it and it strikes back harder, watch any battle replayed, and mind your Honour

The Black Tide now keeps a grudge against each Governor who attacks it. Every attack deepens it one step, however many waves you send, and its answer grows with the grudge, from a short sting at the island you sailed from up to catapults across your realm. It can wreck your buildings but it can never take your island, and two quiet days make it forget a step. Your battle report shows how deep the grudge runs and warns what the next step would bring.

Honour and bounties

Picking on far smaller realms that still play costs your good name. Fair fights and bigger foes earn it back. Every Governor carries one of ten labels, from Wolf’s Head to Legend of the Isles, and the battle forecast shows the Matchup before you send. Keep punching down and the Watch puts a price on your head: the Tavern’s new Leads board shows the hunt, every hunter’s blows count toward one tally, and the reward is shared by what each struck. A punch-down assault carries your name even under Unsigned Sails. The handbook has new Tavern and Honour pages.

Watch the battle

Any battle can be replayed. News cards and reports on your Desk are marked Replay, a war’s timeline has Watch, and combined attacks and alliance operations play with each fleet sailing in from its own island. Drag through the fight or speed it up, and watch the island burn under siege and change flag when taken. Founding a colony plays its christening, and a Black Tide warning shows its black sails on a night sea.

New

• The Black Tide holds a grudge, and your battle report shows how deep it runs and what comes next
• Honour labels, the Matchup forecast, and Wanted bounties on the Tavern’s Leads board
• Watch any battle replayed, with a “With replay” filter on News and the Desk
• Two one-day alliance quests over the rocks: Strike Their Colours and Raise the Colours, and the quest board now lists the newest first with a NEW stamp
• Saturday’s Chronicle is The Week, one story built around the week’s rivalry, and Sunday brings a short tale starring Governors who were at sea that week

Improved

• Black Tide islands come in different strengths, and four great fortresses will rise, each circled by a ring of black hulls that shows the size of its watch
• Black Tide reprisals sail round a Rotsalt-warded island to your other shores, and bring catapults only while you are around
• A blackened idol falls only to the wave that razes a Tide hall and frees the island
• World News, alliance chat and island history group a siege or a run of raids onto one card, and a tap opens its Governors, island or war
• Alliance news shows every fight, the Black Tide’s included, and your own alliance’s raids gather on one quiet card instead of reading like an alarm
• Reactions show a count on every chip, and raids on empty islands no longer crowd the world ticker
• The morning Chronicle picks its lead like an editor and prints engravings, quotations and the Governor of the Day; the Estate page says how your people are faring, and a realm that falls is reported gently
• Your battle report tells you when a patrol sank your escort, combined attacks included
• A treasure found under Unsigned Sails names nobody in World News
• Ships around islands are newly painted and fly their alliance’s flag
• Profiles reworked, with your alliance flag beside your name and Distinctions in About
• Honors are now called Distinctions, and nothing you earned has changed
• Phone notifications group up, World Chat buzzes only when someone mentions you, opening the game clears them, and quest updates in alliance chat have their own switch
• One prospecting fleet with enough holds carries off everything a rock holds
• The handbook’s building tables run to level 30
• Visiting another Governor’s island shows their portrait and whether they are online
• Smaller things: the Market opens on a busy harbour quay, two new weekly alliance spotlights (the Settler and the Treasure hunter), your steward’s bench sits first on the Craft tab, and your own profile drops its extra tabs

Fixed

• Black Tide islands no longer rebuild their hall seconds after your wave knocks it down
• The Black Tide posts in World Chat at most three times a day
• Phone notifications no longer stop for good on iPhone
• A fleet whose battle fails before it starts turns back whole, and a battle that breaks off is never fought twice
• Combined attack reports show the buildings your catapults knocked down
• A greyed-out Build, Train or Research button says what the island is already working on
• A slap in chat shows your name instead of “you”, and an alliance siege card reads Fell when an island is lost
• Island State cards clear within 15 minutes of fixing the cause
• Battle reports count allied garrison troops among the defenders
• A lost combined attack or alliance operation shows only which defenders fell, never which still stand
• Replays show strangers no building or wall levels
• Appointing a steward no longer shows an error after it went through
• The Rotsalt rite says plainly that it guards only the island it is cast on

Thanks

Some of this release started as your reports. Thanks to Florentia, Turtle Blues and Vinzent Zeppelin.